1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to meal planning and, more particularly, to a meal planning system, and related method, for generating personalized meal plans.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known in the art that a proper diet is important to a person's health and well being. Traditionally, diet plans have addressed a single goal, e.g., weight loss. Towards that end, such diet plans primarily focused on limiting daily caloric intake. These diets would assign the person a daily caloric intake amount, which is derived from a standardized formula or chart based on factors such as age, gender, height and body weight. The corresponding meal plan to this dietary approach would be established by satisfying the daily caloric intake amount.
As diet plans advanced, the factors and formulas used to create corresponding meal plans have become increasingly complex. Some diet plans have focused on a person's fat and fiber intake. Other diet plans are based on fixed ratios of macronutrients such as fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, while varying daily caloric intake based on some standardized factors or formulas. Still other diet plans vary the ratios of macronutrients based only on complex formulas accounting for factors such as the customer's metabolic rate, exercise regime, and health objectives. The formulas associated with these types of diets provide precise, personalized values for daily intake of macronutrients. Such diet plans, if followed, have been generally effective in achieving the person's health objectives. However, determining the proper daily amount of macronutrients can be complicated and time consuming. It is not practical to use generalized recipes under such diet plans, since the appropriate ratios of macronutrients and total calories per day vary with each individual. Furthermore, generating personalized recipes to fulfill these daily requirements requires considerable time and effort.
It should, therefore, be appreciated that there is a need for a cost-effective system and method that provides personalized meal plans optimized to achieve a selectable health objective, which requires minimal research, effort, time, computation and record keeping. The present invention fulfills this need as well as others.